IntroductionThe
Philips SACD1000 is a multi-channel Super Audio CD player that also
plays both PAL and NTSC DVD-Video discs (but note it is not
multi-region), CDs, Video CDs and even CD-Rs, but not, strangely, DTS
CDs. The SACD1000 retails for $2,000.

About Super Audio CD
SACD is a development
by Sony and Philips as a successor to the Compact Disc (and competitor
to DVD-Audio), but the two companies have taken a very different
attitude to delivering high-quality audio. Sony was first out of the
gate, but their players were stereo-only and very expensive, aimed at
an allegedly still-existent stereo audiophile market in Japan that has
all but disappeared elsewhere. Philips, on the other hand, has been
adamant that their players would offer multichannel capability from the
start: this worthy decision unfortunately delaying availability of
machines for a while.

Following on from the Sony preference for stereo, the vast majority of
releases of SACD software have also been stereo only. There are more
SACD titles out there at the time of writing than DVD-A (and this will
rise still further, no doubt, following the recent EMI announcement and
news of Universal Music Group’s trial run with the SACD medium), but
while all DVD-A discs are surround, only a handful of SACDs so far are
multichannel.

Another big difference between SACD and DVD-A is that the former are –
at present, at least – decidedly audio discs, not audio-visual discs.
There are none of the on-screen menus, graphics, lyrics or additional
features that generally appear on DVD-A software: apparently there is a
visual area allowed for on the disc but the decision was taken to focus
on audio in the SACD rollout phase. This fact also presumably makes
audio-only SACDs easier to author.
SACD
discs can take three forms: single-layer (one high-density layer);
dual-layer (two high-density layers); and hybrid-layer (one HD layer
and one Red Book-compatible CD layer). Each HD layer contains a
high-quality stereo section (starting at the center of the disc) and
can additionally contain a high-quality multi-channel section starting
after the stereo. The hybrid disc can be played back either in a
regular CD player (which reads the Red Book layer) or an SACD player
(which reads the HD layer).

SACD utilizes a completely
different kind of digital recording system than other systems (such as
CD and DVD, which use PCM – Pulse Code Modulation). Instead of PCM,
SACD uses Direct Stream Digital, or DSD. This is covered in more detail
in a separate article
but suffice to say here that DSD employs a 1-bit bitstream (rather than
the 16, 20 or 24 bits employed in PCM, as used by Compact Disc and
DVD), and that DSD uses a sample rate 64 times higher than that of
regular CD. Potentially, the audio quality should be at least
equivalent to, or even exceed, the quality of DVD-Audio at 24/96.

First Glance
The first thing you notice about this player is its size and weight. It
is about twice the height of many players, and it weighs a lot more. It
is evident from the construction that this substantial player is
manufactured to very high standards, and perhaps not via standard
churn-’em-out mass production methods – which means better quality, but
higher price, of course.

Quite a few SACD players are still expensive compared to DVD-A
competitors (though the latest offerings from Sony are in the same
ball-park, starting at around $350), but looking at the build quality
of this Philips unit, it is easy to see why. It is a contemporary of my
first-generation Kenwood DVD-A player, which probably cost about
$1,100, but it is much heavier, more solidly built… and almost twice
the price. Other first-generation DVD-A machines (also playing DVD-V)
were rather less expensive: the JVC first-generation machine for
example, now discontinued (go to Costco to find one for $280),
originally cost $800.

Rear
panel connections include a 6-channel analog output, which is optional
for DVD replay but obligatory for SACD – no digital output is available
for this mode, because SACD is not a PCM system and converting it to
PCM for a CD-quality digital output would be completely missing the
point (you will see why later). There are two analog stereo outputs
(which can be set to offer ‘virtual surround’); TOSLink Optical and
S/PDIF Coax digital outputs (for DVD replay only); and two composite
video outs, plus S-Video and YUV. Apart from that, about the only other
thing on the rear panel is a three-position filter switch for use with
SACDs.

The SACD1000 behaves almost as two separate
players, one for CD and SACD, and one for DVD-Video. On the DVD side,
the unit includes a Dolby AC-3 5.1 decoder, which drives the surround
analog outs. It will also provide a Dolby AC-3 or DTS data stream from
DVD discs to the digital outs.

However, the unit, in a rather surprising oversight, will not play
DTS-encoded CDs, even though DTS DVD-video discs can be played back by
using an external DTS decoder. This is quite strange, and it is hard to
think why. Almost certainly, lovers of surround audio will want to play
back anything they can get their hands on and DTS CDs have been around
for ages; and it is not a competing format for SACD, unlike DVD-A
(consumers would really like to see all players capable of handling
both SACD and DVD-Audio, but for that you’ll have to wait until next
year). No matter how DTS CDs sound in comparison, why would Philips be
so worried when there is a DTS digital output capability from DVD, it
would presumably have been easy to provide it, and it would help to
point out the supposed superiority of their high quality audio disc
format? Apart from this oversight, the player will handle any kind of
disc (including CD-R and CD-R/W) except, of course, DVD-Audio – the
competition.

DVD-Video performance and functionality
The
video quality on DVD replay is exceptionally good on composite and
especially S-video: I do not (yet) have a monitor with YUV capability,
so cannot report on that. My favorite test movies, "The Fifth Element"
and "The Mask of Zorro", both authored by the high-definition unit at
Sony (the former was one of the discs that convinced me to enter the
DVD market), came across extremely well, with a slight edge over the
performance of my Kenwood – but bear in mind that the Philips costs
twice as much. The digital audio outputs from the two machines in this
mode were indistinguishable, which is as it should be, relying on my
Pioneer receiver’s D/A converters.

Many
useful features are included, such as automatic aspect ratio
compensation. The on-screen display is also very clear and easy to
follow, although the control philosophy is a little different from that
usually encountered on a DVD player, perhaps due to the difference
between European and Japanese approaches to the user interface
question. There are several unusual icons and letter codes but they are
generally pretty easy to guess the meaning of. The configuration screen
allows access to the usual functions, and on the audio front this
includes 6-channel speaker sizes and availability, plus delay times –
but these settings only apply to DVD-Video replay and not SACD.

Audio Functionality
When it comes to playing audio discs – SACD or just plain CD – the
SACD1000 turns into a different machine. There is a very basic setup
screen and some on-screen information when you are playing a disc, but
quite honestly you can get all that from the front panel and there is
no need to have a monitor connected when replaying audio discs.

One very significant achievement of this Philips player is the ability
to switch seamlessly and instantaneously between the stereo and
multichannel HD sections of an SACD at the touch of a button, despite
the fact that they are on quite different parts of the disc.

SACD and the DSD recording process promise a dynamic range in excess of
120 dB (which is about as good as a practical 24-bit PCM-based system)
and noise is certainly not a problem on this machine: any system noise
is dwarfed by noise on the original masters if analog, or an open mic
preamp on the recording console. SACD’s frequency response extends
beyond 50 kHz (according to the write-up in the SACD1000 manual, which
might be considered by some to be a bit conservative: there has been
talk of SACD going up to 100 kHz in some cases, and in theory there is
no reason why not). This would give SACD a more extended frequency
range than DVD-Audio discs with a 96 kHz sample rate (where the
response would end a little under 48 kHz) but less than that of a 192
kHz DVD-A recording (which would be stereo only and extend up to just
under 96 kHz). However, while there are several SACD multichannel
recordings out there, there are so far few DVD-A recordings originated
at 192 kHz to make that comparison.

Not all sound systems may be able to cope with the high frequency
energy that accompanies a DSD recording. Reports suggest that some Mark
Levinson gear, for example, has failed as a result. It has been debated
whether or not this is due to actual high-frequency signal content, or
to the presence of high levels of out-of-band noise produced as a
result of the heavy noise-shaping curves employed in DSD. It is also
highly likely that claims of potential damage are greatly exaggerated.
In any event, the Philips SACD1000 includes a rear-panel filter switch
to deal with possible problems. According to the manual, the three
positions offer a 40 kHz rolloff, a 50 kHz rolloff on the front
speakers and 40 kHz on the others, and 50 kHz rolloff all round. This
seems a little odd: one would have thought that an extra 10 kHz
wouldn’t make much difference between your system working and blowing
up, and indeed the data sheet for the product refers to "filter on" and
"filter off" responses, the former going up to 40 kHz and the latter
100 kHz, which is more like it. My very ordinary system did not fail in
any position. I might possibly have noticed a little more high end on
high frequency instruments like triangle, bells and stuff as I switched
between 1 and 3, but equally I could be fooling myself.

There is no means of configuring the analog outputs in SACD mode, which
in particular means no bass management. The SACD system takes the idea
of all channels being full-range very seriously (all channels in DVD-A
are also full range, but generally there is the capability to define
the size – i.e. bass management – and position of speakers, just as
with a regular DVD-video player). Whatever the reasoning behind this
decision, it will be a nuisance to many listeners – and it should be
noted that the latest $350 Sony SACD surround player has perfectly
adequate bass management built in.

Most
surround SACDs seems to display as "3/2" which means three front
channels and two surrounds, but sometimes you see "3/2+1" which
presumably indicates something on the 6th channel. This may not always
be a sub feed: one of the discs I have is a Tom Jung recording in which
the sixth channel is used for height, and I will be listening to it as
soon as I have successfully hung a speaker over my head.

I’m all in favor of using the LFE for something sensible, such as an
overhead. There is no need for a Low Frequency Effects channel: a) in
music as a whole, where neither dinosaur footfalls nor asteroids
hitting the Earth are normally part of an orchestral or even heavy rock
(sorry) arrangement; and b) when you have all your channels capable of
handling the full frequency range, as is the case in both SACD and
DVD-A. I am not, however, in favor of omitting bass management – which,
when present, means essentially that whatever low bass there is on any
channel will be routed to any speaker or speakers that can handle it.

If you are like me, the analog 5.1 input on your receiver is
essentially left alone by the manufacturer as much as possible to
maximize the purity of the sound. If the player’s 5.1 output doesn’t
have bass management either, then in my case you have the possibility
of heavy bass being fed to my relatively small CF or surrounds and not
either to my sub or to the large front speakers, which could handle it.